1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to an integrated flat fluorescent lamp and a method of making such a lamp. The present invention relates more particularly to a flat fluorescent lamp having a plurality of thick-film electrodes arranged to form two conductive split hollow electrodes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the recent increase in the demand for small, portable video screens, such as in small screen portable televisions and laptop computers, the problem has arisen of constructing suitably light and uniformly bright flat display devices. One popular type of display, the liquid crystal display, depends on backlighting to improve the quality of the images displayed. One prior art backlight design used tubular fluorescent lamps. An improvement on this basic design placed a pair of electrodes on opposite ends of a lamp construction. See, K. Hinotani, S. Kishimoto, K. Terada, "Flat Fluorescent Lamp For LCD Back-Light", International Display Research Conference, 52-55, 1988. The Hinotani, et al., electrodes are of unitary construction and extend essentially the entire length of the lamp. While this construction emits light more uniformly than the tubular fluorescent lamp construction, it still has substantial nonuniformity.